A client asks, “What are benefits of scanning?”

One may think that the answer is obvious, but scanning is relatively new to the I.T. industry. Scanning is a process by which hard copy paper documents are entered into a scanning device, that device scans the images on those documents, and it makes an electronic copy that becomes stored on a computer/storage device.

The most common benefit of scanning is the reduction in physical space. There are industries that require that a business collect and maintain several years of data. In this case, as a business grows so does their storage of documents. These days, electronic storage devices such as hard drives and DVD/CD’s have become inexpensive, so converting stacks and stacks of documents to electronic files has become a common practice. Think of how much square footage is being used for the document storage in your facility, and then multiply that by your rent per square foot. You might find that the space is better utilized for something else, such as revenue growth (i.e. sales).

Another benefit is the ease of organization. Electronic images are much more manageable in terms of searching documents. The legal industry, due to their massive amount of documentation, utilizes this functionality to be more efficient when working a case. In fact, attorneys go so far as to purchase proprietary softwares (Concordance, Summation) to help sort the electronic documents. Think about the time, which equals money, that can saved by having documents at the tip of your fingers, while maintaining your sales/service price (can you say margin increase?).

The only downside is that it takes a considerable amount of time to execute this process, so it is recommended that the documents be picked up by a scan service company (hint), and let them handle the dirty work.

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